


Papaoutai

by VoidPrince



Category: Octopath Traveler, Project Octopath Traveler (Video Game)
Genre: Family Dynamics, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, I see Olberic as Team Dad in general but I like his potential dynamic w Therion the most, Non-Romantic Relationship, Therion tries to play off he doesn't care about everyone, and Olberic is (x) Doubt, sorta - Freeform, the beginnings of it I guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-10 12:42:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15291765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VoidPrince/pseuds/VoidPrince
Summary: Where is your dad? || Tell me where is your dad? || Without even having to talk to him || He knows what’s wrong





	Papaoutai

**Author's Note:**

> Hi I'm Prince/Icarus and I've literally never written a fic before idk what tf I'm doing, but I knew if I didn't start the Olberic and Therion dad/son-family content then no one else might start it, so I had to set the stage for you beautiful people who DO know how to write to work ur magic. I'm so sorry you all read this expecting something good, i don't know how to pace things for shit,,,
> 
> Yall can find me at @DEMONofPARADOX on twitter to laugh at my shit writing

###### 

He wasn’t sure how long after the ex-knight had joined their ‘merry’ little group he’d found himself glaring at the man-- well less glaring and more just… intensely staring. That sounded vaguely nicer, right? It wasn’t like he was mad at the man or anything after all, there was just... something he couldn’t place whenever he watched Olberic interact with the others of their group that irk’d him. Or maybe he _was_ just irritated. Lately the thief always found himself rolling his eyes with an inward groan when Ophilia would eagerly approach him after a battle and comment on the ex-knight’s fighting, thanking him for his hard work, and he’d pull his scarf up just a little higher and look away whenever Tressa would run over and show off a freshly haggled purchase with those stars in her eyes.

“Therion, look out--!”

The thief narrowly dodged the blade of the ratkin monster with a soft ‘tsk’. Now he was going to look the fool, getting distracted in the middle of a minor scuffle like this. Great. Thankfully-- or unthankfully-- said man finished off the last monster with a decisive swing of his sword, slicing clean through as the ratkin dropped to the ground. He heard Tressa’s muffled ‘eww..’ as H’aanit and Olberic began clearing the area of the remains of the monsters.

“That should be good for now. We’ve cleared out enough of them they should stay back for long enough for us to make camp and take a brief rest for the night.” Therion scoffed. _‘Yeah, ‘cause killin’ a few is really going to keep them away for long.’_ As the ex-knight sheathed his sword and wiped his hands, H’aanit was already hard at work getting a small fire pit prepared with Linde’s help.

“I can’t believe we have to camp outside _again_ , I just wanna sleep in an inn...” Tressa whined with puffed out cheeks as she reluctantly pulled a few blankets and supplies from her large bag. He hadn’t had time to look at the younger girl’s bag since she’d joined them, perhaps he’d do that tonight just to distract himself. There was sure to be something in there she wouldn’t remember having he could pocket until they reached the next town and he could pawn it off. Alfyn wandering over and putting a hand on Tressa’s had in a sort of mock-ruffling motion pulled Therion from staring at the bag any longer.

“Aww don’t worry Tress’, ‘m sure we’ll hit town t’morrow, we’re awful close now anyways. Look, ya can see the lights jus’ down the cliff ridges there!” Sure enough they were close to town like Alfyn pointed out, but it was definitely still a few hours’ worth of walking. Better to be safer than sorry when in such a large group-- one of the many downsides to being surrounded by seven other persons. Seven and a large cat, rather. But the reassurance from the apothecary seemed to settle Tressa’s small fit, and the girl bounded back into her usual cheerful mood.

###### 

After a short while they’d gotten a small fire started and scrounged together some food, mostly with H’aanit’s help, and settled for small talk as the sky got darker and darker. Watch shifts were suggested as everyone prepared to rest on the off-chance more monsters decided to try and attack, Cyrus and Tressa deciding to take it upon themselves to split everyone into groups without a care to any protest from the others: H’aanit and Primrose first shift, Tressa and Alfyn second, Cyrus and Ophilia third, and finally Olberic and himself. Great. Watch shift with the stoic ex-knight who made him unexplainably irritable. Fan-fuckin-tastic. The thief was already dreading dealing with their shift as he didn’t bother grabbing a blanket from the small pile Tressa had pulled out, instead just moving to the edge of their ‘campsite’ and lying down on his side, facing away from the others.

He could hardly sleep, something felt like it was still watching, but he wasn’t about to bother getting up and having whoever was on guard question him. If whatever it was hadn’t attacked yet then they should be fine. Probably just a straggler from the earlier monsters, it’d be easy enough to deal with if it did strike. Falling in and out of sleep most of the night, he caught snippets of conversations throughout everyone’s shifts,nothing really of interest. He didn’t care enough about the other’s reasons for setting out, as long as they stayed out of his way and he could use them to direct attention away from himself when he’d find a dragonstone in order to steal it then that was more than enough.

A hand gentle placed itself on his shoulder and he lurched upright, hand gripping his dagger under his shawl before getting a good look at who it was. Ophilia had jumped back in surprise already, nervously apologizing for startling him.

“M-my apologies Therion, I only meant to rouse you for your turn to watch the camp…”

“Yeah whatever, I’m up, I’m up.” He let the tension in his body unwind, letting go of his weapon before slowly pushing himself up from the ground. Olberic was already up, adding a few more small pieces to the low campfire, probably to keep it going for the remaining few hours of their watch. Therion moved past the cleric, ignoring her call of good night before she went to bed herself, and sat himself near the fire with back turned to the ex-knight.

The first part of the watch was… quiet. Therion hadn’t made any attempt at small talk, nor did Olberic. _‘Probably doesn’t want to sully himself talking with a thief. Knights and guards are all alike in that sense.’_ Honestly he was surprised the pious cleric even bothered trying to be friendly with him after Alfyn had blurted out his whole situation to every new party member they seemed to acquire. She was probably just trying to be nice, as if his feelings would be hurt if she wasn’t.

He’d been staring at the fire blankly, lost in thoughts about how he was sure none of the others actually _enjoyed_ his company when the silence of the fire broke.

“Go back to sleep, kid. I’ll handle the watch.” The thief’s head jerked up at the sound of Olberic’s voice, his visible eye narrowing slightly.

“What, don’t feel comfortable keepin’ watch with a thief?” He spat back with a slight sneer, hand unconsciously moving under his shawl to the fool’s bangle around his right wrist, gripping it tightly. With a bemused chuckle the ex-knight didn’t miss a beat, not even looking up as he gave the fire another gentle prod.

“Don’t feel comfortable keeping you up when you haven’t gotten any sleep. Go on and rest, kid. You look like you need it.”

“A couple of hours ain’t exactly gonna fix years of sleep deprivation, _old man_. Thanks for th’ thought though.”

Olberic cocked an eyebrow as Therion turned away again, watching as the younger man resumed fidgeting with the bangle.

“Suit yourself. Offer’s open if you want to rest.” No retort this time.

The last of the night seemed to drag on now that Therion actually had to be awake, and that feeling they were being watched from earlier in the evening had returned too. Now he was anxious and tired. Really great. All of tonight was just _great_. There was another period of silence before Olberic spoke up again, Therion tensing slightly as the sound had startled him awake from his dozing off state.

“It might be out of place for me to say as I’m certainly not the first to join this little band, but you seem rather reluctant to trust any of your friends. Surely you’re not that paranoid a thief to believe any of them mean to do you any harm?”

“They’re not my friends.”

“Jumped to that fast, didn’t you?”

“Well they’re not. Or would you rather I just lie like a thief too?”

“You this hostile to everyone else, or just me?”

“Hah, and what makes you think you’re so special?”

“Maybe tone down that glare of yours next time we’re in a fight and don’t get yourself distracted-- ‘Keep an eye on your allies’ does little good when you’re not keen to your surrounding and you get yourself hurt instead.” The thief tensed, but kept looking to his bangle. ‘Guess the old man had a keener eye than I thought…’ He opened his mouth, about to find a snarky reply, but quickly closed it. No sooner did he close his mouth was Olberic chuckling, pushing up from the ground to stretch his legs.

“You’re a smart kid, just be careful. Your friends would--”

“ **Not.** My friends.”

“--likely be upset if you got yourself hurt.” The older man rolled his shoulders, softly sighing at the sound of a ‘pop’ before stepping towards the edge of the camp, calling over his shoulder loud enough for just Therion to hear. “Be back in a moment. Don’t fall asleep now.” He received a scoff in reply before stepping into the brush and out of sight.

Without the ex-knight next to him, some of the frustrated anxiety mellowed out, and Therion let himself relax just a little. Sure he’d only be gone a few minutes, but any time he had to himself was welcome. It was so hard to get any time to himself these days. Lying back on the ground, he stared up at the sky as he listened to the fire. He missed this kind of quiet. Back when it was just him and…

###### 

The next thing he realizes as his eyes adjust to the light is a ratkin about to slam its blade down into him. Except it’s not the ratkin’s blade, it’s _his_ dagger. _‘Fuck, how did it-- when did I--!?’_ Therion panicked, trying to push up and grab his shortsword, knowing it’d likely be too late to block but he had to do something-- but as he grit his teeth and forced his eyes shut at the inevitable contact of metal to his skin, he was instead hit with the feeling of something swinging just past his face, and the short, gurgled cry of the rat-like monster, followed by a blade hitting the ground with a ‘thump’.

His heart was racing, and he didn’t open his eyes. He had a good idea of what just happened and he was too damn embarrassed to even want to look at the man, his cheeks probably bright red as they felt like they were burning. He absolutely _hated_ being embarrassed like this, when it was all his fault, a stupid slip up like this. He was sure the ex-knight was standing there, smug grin, seconds away from giving a haughty ‘told you so’. But no mocking remark came.

Instead, the feeling of his dagger being put back in its place on his belt was the only sort of sound he could hear aside from the fire. Another few seconds of quiet and the feeling of fabric dropping over him is what finally has the thief snapping his eyes open. Olberic didn’t halt his actions even as Therion stared up with frustrated confusion, wrapping what he now saw was one of the thin blankets around him and picked the younger man up.

“H-hey! What th’ _fuck_ are you doing?!” He hissed, doing surprisingly little to fight again being lifted, if only thanks to the cloth wrapped around him. Wordlessly he was set back down, and Olberic gave him a pat on his shoulder. He was wrapped in the blanket to the point he couldn’t squirm away, unfortunately, so he could only scowl from his blanket-binding.

“Sorry, I stepped away longer than I had meant to. Glad to see you’re ok. You can get some sleep now, kid.”

“Th’ hell is your problem! Enough with this ‘kid’ shit, what do you think you are, my dad or somethin’?” He’d finally pulled an arm free, slapping the man’s hand off his shoulder before sitting up in a huff. Therion glared, fullly ready to fight and argue against any bullshit excuse that was going to be pushed his way, but to his surprise, Olberic looked… guilty?

“I may have overstepped my boundaries. So for that I apologize.”

“...yeah, whatever…” Therion’s anger deflated almost as quickly as it had reared its head. _‘Now the old man looks like a kicked puppy, great.’_

“But you are unharmed, yes?” The ex-knight looked over, genuine concern in his eyes. That was… surprising. No one really ever cared. Then again, he always tried to push away everyone else in the group who wanted to help, always so sure that none of them actually cared, so he’d never really looked. He bit his lip and looked away. Stubborn habits of his past, but they would be hard to break-- if he ever managed to.

“Mm, fine, thanks.” His voice had less bite to it than earlier, and he swore Olberic had just flashed a faint smile. Oh he’d kick his ass if anyone else found out about this.

“Good. Now you ready to finally get some sleep? Everyone will be up in about an hour, but it’s something.”

“If I do will you stop naggin’ me?”

“Perhaps.”

“Ugh, whatever, fine old man, I’ll go to sleep!” Pulling the blanket around him and tugging his scarf up to hide more of his face, he gave up trying to argue against it. Sleep overtook him much faster than normal, though he likely wouldn’t admit how easily he’d fallen asleep when he woke up next.

Olberic glanced down as he heard the slower, heavier breathing once Therion had properly fallen asleep. Despite seeing him jolt up earlier when Ophilia had gone to wake him, the ex-knight placed a hand on the younger’s head, gently tousling the already messy hair, and chuckling lightly as the thief didn’t flinch or stir at the touch.

“Sleep tight, kid…”


End file.
